%% %% The LaTeX Companion, 3ed %% %% Example 4-3-34 on page I-358 in "Balancing control". %% %% Copyright (C) 2022 Frank Mittelbach %% %% It may be distributed and/or modified under the conditions %% of the LaTeX Project Public License, either version 1.3c %% of this license or (at your option) any later version. %% %% See https://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt for details. %% \documentclass{tlc3exa} \pagestyle{empty} \setcounter{page}{6} \setlength\textwidth{183.0pt} \addtolength\columnsep{-2pt} \tolerance=3000 %StartShownPreambleCommands \usepackage{multicol,ragged2e} \setcounter{minrows}{1} % this is the default! %StopShownPreambleCommands \begin{document} \begin{multicols}{3} \RaggedRight \ldots\ that's not enough for balancing! \end{multicols} The above looks like a line with gaps and not like three balanced columns. However, whatever value you use for \texttt{minrows}, it will look ugly with this input. \end{document}